By Canadian Press

Tampa Bay Rays exploring splitting home games with Montreal

Jun 20, 2019 | 1:27 PM

The Tampa Bay Rays have received permission from Major League Baseball’s executive council to explore a plan that could see the team split its home games between the Tampa Bay area and Montreal.

Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement Thursday at the end of the owners’ meetings.

There is no timetable for the possible plan. An idea under consideration is for the Rays to play early in the season in Tampa Bay and later in Montreal.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the team would explore splitting home games with Montreal, noting the plan would face several significant hurdles before being implemented, and likely no earlier than 2023.

Tampa Bay is averaging 14,546 fans per home game, ahead of only the Miami Marlins. The Rays have played at Tropicana Field since their inception in 1998 and drew their lowest home crowd of 5,786 against Toronto last month. They had looked into building a new stadium for years but in December abandoned a plan to build across the bay in Tampa.

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The Montreal Expos existed from 1969-2004 before they moved to Washington and became the Nationals. In their last two seasons before moving, the Expos played 22 games per year at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Toronto Blue Jays are the only Canadian team in MLB.

— with files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press